page_title: Field hockey stick
section_title: Permitted deviation
hierarchical_section_title: Field hockey stick / Permitted deviation
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of handle edge deviation to toe side on goalkeeper's hockey stick.
context_page_description: In field hockey, each player carries a stick and cannot take part in the game without it. The stick for an adult is usually in the range 89–95 cm long. A maximum length of 105 cm was stipulated from 2016. The maximum permitted weight is 737 grams. The majority of players use a stick in the range 19 oz to 22 oz. Traditionally hockey sticks were made of hickory, ash or mulberry wood with the head of the sticks being hand carved and therefore required skilled craftsmen to produce. Sticks made of wood continue to be made but the higher grade sticks are now manufactured from composite materials which were first permitted after 1992. These sticks usually contain a combination of fibreglass, aramid fiber and carbon fibre in varying proportions according to the characteristics required.
context_section_description: Although permitted deviation (from the straight) to the edges of a hockey stick (handle) were included in the 1991 Rules of Hockey, a diagram of a hockey stick, to illustrate what was permitted was not included until 2000 and then it was a part stick diagram placed horizontally on a page smaller than the A6 page of the present rulebook. The diagram was very poorly drawn but it was a significant step for the FIH to include it at all. The diagram remained unchanged until 2004, when the orientation was altered so that the stick was shown upright and it was also shown full length. The x-axis (previously vertical) became the ground plane and the y-axis a vertical line through the centre of the handle. Further improvements to the diagram (particularly the drawing of the representation of the stick and an illustration of possible curves to the handle) were made in 2006 and a second diagram, detailing head configuration, was added.
  To describe the dimensions of head and handle the hockey stick is envisaged to be placed with the bottom curve of the stick head on a level surface, the x-axis, with the stick-handle perpendicular to it (the y-axis). The y-axis runs from an intersection with the x-axis (0) vertically through the midpoint of the top of the handle. The Head is the part from the x-axis to the line C-C (diagram) a vertical distance of 100 mm. This line C-C also describes the limit on any upturn to the toe of the head. By Rule there is no limit to the length of the stick head along the x-axis, but practical considerations, as well as technicalities related to the joining of the head and the Handle (on the line C-C), did create limitations with wooden sticks.
  The extent of the stick head along the X+ axis, towards the 'heel' of the Head is confined by the rule requirement that the stick head and the handle meet in a smooth continuous fashion at the line C-C and by a rule restriction on the shape of the handle, which is that the stick-handle must not project beyond the line B1-B1. It is possible to envisage a stick where the width of handle did not extend beyond the line A1-A1, thus allowing a significant extension of the stick head along the X+ axis, but the practicalities of such a design seem to be limited and have not been explored. The length of the Head (or toe) along the X- axis has varied enormously, especially since the Second World War and again after the introduction of the timber lamination process in the early 1980s.
  The stick handle may be bent or 'deviated', in a smooth curve only, once only to either side. That is the handle may have one out-moving curve on the 'heel' side of the head and one out-moving curve on the toe side. It is therefore possible to have a hockey stick with a handle deviation to the front or toe side or a handle deviation to the back or 'heel' side or a stick-handle that is bent once to both the toe and 'heel' sides.
  The sample diagram on the right shows three deviating areas (a), (b), and (c). Any of these areas could exist on a stick by itself but, in this illustration, area (a) could legally coexist with area (b) and area (c) could coexist with area (b); but areas (a) and (c) could not legally coexist on the same stick because they are both on the same edge and only one protrusion either beyond the line AA or beyond the line A1A1—or both—is permitted on the handle.
  The maximum permitted width of the handle (51 mm) is illustrated in the diagram by the distance between the dotted lines A-A and A1-A1. A hockey stick handle will rarely be of the maximum permitted width: most are between 46 mm and 48 mm at the widest point.
   The maximum permitted 'deviation' is shown by the lines B-B and B1-B1 respectively. The line B-B is 20 mm further along the X- axis than the line A-A and the line B1-B1 is 20 mm further along the X+ axis than the line A1-A1. There is no limit to the length of a protrusion along the y-axis specified, so the deviation curve or curves may be of any length along the length of the stick-handle. Some goalkeeping sticks have an outward curve on the toe side (within the line B-
caption: Sample goalkeeper stick with long edge deviation to toe side
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